Texas Flood | At Least 1 Dead In Catastrophic Flooding In Texas Hill Country | US News | N18G

The breaking news out of south Texas, where areas of the hill country are under a flash flood emergency. That's the highest possible level of warning. More than 20,000 people are being told to immediately head for higher ground as large and deadly flood waves have seen multiple rivers rise to what are described as perilous levels. The waters of the Guadalupe River rose more than 25 ft in just one hour earlier this morning. That's a danger for all creatures, not just humans. And crews have rescued dozens of people from rising waters. One family in Kerrville says they woke up at two a.m. to find water filling their home. They took shelter in the attic and say floodwaters were just a foot from the roof when rescuers reached them. Thank God our meteorologist Eric Van Dam is joining us right now, Derek. So where do things stand right now? And when will this danger pass? Well, we're getting new information from the National Weather Service regarding the Guadalupe River. They are warning people to not become complacent that it could give a false sense of security if they see the water levels going down because they believe that a second crest may occur specifically in Kerrville and into hunt. This is again the southern hill country of Texas. So that's right along the Guadalupe River right here. We've highlighted that flash flood emergency. It's that white polygon to the north, though I want to focus in on this area. This is the Pedernales River and this is extremely important because now another wording, this is the third time I've ever heard this from the National Weather Service, a deadly large and deadly flood wave moving downstream across the Pedernales River just below downstream from the Fredericksburg area. So that region is under major flood stage as it stands or it's forecast to become and it is likely going to rival some of the historic crests. This is just incredible to see what's happening here. This rapid rise downstream from Fredericksburg, that is that large deadly wave of water that we're seeing materialize here on many of the streams and rivers across the hill country. We've had rainfall accumulations just since midnight more than 12 inches and some places raining at 5 inches per hour depending on where these bands set up. That's why they have these catastrophic flash flood emergencies tagged on that. That's the highest alert level that the National Weather Service can issue. Again here's the Guadalupe River, Kerrville to Comfort. This is the area we have to watch out for the potential of a secondary crest. This is incredible to see on a river gauge. 25 feet of rapidly rising water just in one hour's time. By the way, the Guadalupe River at Comfort broke last year's record crest that was set on July 4th of 2025. We all know what how that all played out. So this is why we're taking this so seriously. Kerrville, the area here, we still have flash flooding within this region and another additional 3 to 5 inches of rain could fall before we finally start to dry things out from the weekend. And as you correctly point out, one of the areas at great risk right now is right near last summer's Camp Mystic tragedy, which all of us remember. That's where 25 campers and several counselors, camp camp counselors, drowned on July 4th. That weekend flooding was so awful. How big is the danger there now? So we, I'm gonna go back to a really critical map here, and this is going to highlight the flood gauges, Wolf, because the the area in question, the Camp Mystic, right, this is an area that we believe has already crested. So this is downstream from the worst flood, or upstream I should say, from the worst flooding. The worst flooding now being between Comfort and downstream of this particular region. So between Kerrville to Comfort. Now Camp Mystic was just to the north and west of that for the Guadalupe River, so the moderate flood stage that is forecast there continues. But it is, again, a possibility of a secondary crest right along that region between Kerrville and into Comfort, Texas. This is the area we're monitoring and kind of honing in on, but really this flash flood emergencies, they can pop up out of anywhere because of this extremely saturated ground. I mean the wording they're using from the National Weather Service, the ground cannot absorb any more additional rainfall, and unfortunately it is still raining. Derek Van Dam, thank you very, very much. And don't forget that this to our viewers, you can always keep up with any severe weather in your area or indeed anywhere else around the country with the CNN Weather app. You can download it at the Apple App Store. Joining us now by phone is the mayor of Kerrville, Texas, Joe Herring, Jr. Mayor, thank you very much for joining us. The Kerr County judge just signed a disaster declaration and requested additional assistance from the state. Bring us up to speed on what you're seeing right now on the ground where you are in your city. First of all, thanks for telling our story. I appreciate it. What we're seeing here is levels of water that are even higher, in my opinion, than the water river levels we saw July 4th, 2025. It's rained hard all night, but it had rained hard Monday night and Tuesday night as well. And so as we went to bed last night, it was dry until about midnight. But since midnight, we've had hard, hard rains in the England, Kerrville, Center Point and Comfort area. Let me get some numbers from you, Mayor Herring, while I have you are showing video live pictures right now from Kerrville, your city community. The water's really rising still. How many residents are under evacuation orders right now? How many rescues have taken place? And have there been any reports of deaths or serious injuries? Well, I don't know. I don't have those numbers. I'm sorry. I know the regions in which we went to do evacuations. That's a low lying areas where residents still live, and they're identical to the residences and areas we evacuated before. As far as fatalities, I have no confirmed, uh, fatalities. Although I'm concerned that we're gonna we're gonna have some confirmations later in the day. Yeah, I'm concerned, too, that water is really moving and rising. Still, many of us, of course, are watching what's happening in Kerr County right now and reminded of last summer's devastating floods, which killed 119 people, and that included 28 from Camp Mystic counselors and campers. Some of the youngest victims were there. Have any camps along the river? And so some of those camps are still open this summer, not Camp Mystic. Have any of the camps requested rescue assistance, at least so far? And how are people in the area feeling as they watch this situation unfold? I personally called one of the camps on the north fork of the Guadalupe River. That's the other four opposite Camp Mystic. And they said the river up there only rose one or two feet. I think most of the rain coverage will be downstream from Hunt and between Ingram to Comfort. Um, that's what I'm seeing here. I know your meteorologist gave you a report, but I've called people up river to find out what they're experiencing. And for the most part, Hunt, this time has been spared the horrific flooding that it suffered last year. Last summer, my co anchor and friend Pamela Brown came down to Texas. She had been a camper at Camp Mystic and talked to you in the days following the July 4th tragedy at Camp Mystic and elsewhere in your area. You told her that you hadn't received the crucial emergency alert to your phone about the flash flooding in the middle of the night. That was a year ago. Listen to this. This is a clip from that interview. Everyone here, if we could have warned them, we would have done so. And we didn't even have a warning. We get alert on floods fairly often because of the terrain here. And did you get an alert on your phone in those overnight hours? I did not. Is that concern? Yes. So over the past year, have things changed from last summer? Do you feel more prepared going into this severe weather event? Did you get an alert earlier as far as the current situation is going on? Yes, sir. With the help of the state of Texas and the upper Guadalupe River Authority, a whole series of warning tools have been in place before summer. And yes, I got possibly six or eight warnings on my personal phone. My wife got them on her phone. Our son, who was closer to the river, got them on his phone. So this time was different in that with the help of the state and the upper Guadalupe River Authority, we had more warning. And I think while the damage to our infrastructure here in the city and the damage to our parks, the damage to our water treatment plant, the damage to our bridges will still be severe, is my sincere hope that the loss of life, which is the protection of life, is our primary responsibility will be significantly lower than it was last year. Are you aware, Mayor of Blackhawk Helicopters now assisting with the rescue? I've seen them myself. That's important to kind of save these people from potentially a disaster unfolding, which already seems to be happening. How is the infrastructure holding up right now? Our water plants, for example, operating? Have there been reported issues? Yes, sir. There are reported issues with our water treatment plant and also with our wastewater transport patient pipeline, transporting wastewater to our wastewater treatment plant. But that's not all. I mean, the bridges to we have a major bridge in the middle of town, which was struck by a large search and recovery barge. And we're concerned about its its viability as a bridge right now. So it's closed.